Overwatch working on fix for mystery autobans

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As a server admin back in the day, I am suspicious when a banned player swears blind they didn’t do anything wrong. But that genuinely has been the case for a number of Overwatch [official site] players, as developers Blizzard Entertainment have confirmed they’ve identified a bug that automatically banned a small number of players from Competitive play. This has hit fewer than 200 players, Blizzard say, so if you find yourself in a room with 201 people swearing blind they didn’t do anything wrong, you’ll know at least two of ’em are wrong’uns.

Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan yesterday apologised for the trouble and explained:

“We recently identified a bug that, in extremely rare cases, can cause players to lose their skill rating progress and receive a seasonal ban from Competitive Play without any prior penalties for leaving early or being kicked for inactivity. This bug is a high priority for our team, and we’re working on a fix to prevent further instances of it occurring as we speak.

“In the meantime, we’ll be removing the seasonal ban for all players affected by this bug as well as restoring their skill rating. To date, this bug has impacted fewer than 200 accounts, but we’ll continue to monitor for additional occurrences and provide assistance until we can implement a permanent fix.”